Fireballs
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Fireball lights up New Mexico sky, 6 March 2014


Albuquerque - There was fire in the sky last night following by a huge boom. It happened last night about 11:45 and it was captured by the Lamy Observatory. The streak across the sky has been classified as a Meteor Fireball.

The classification is often determined by how bright it appears. In this case it was brighter than Venus and even the moon.
Fireball over New Mexico
© Screen Capture
People in Albuquerque's north valley tell KRQE News 13 it was so loud their houses shook. They wonder if the meteor actually crashed here but there's no evidence it did.

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Fireball explodes over Yellowknife, Canada - Witnesses say it 'turned night sky blue', 6 March 2014

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© Yuichi TakasakaI was leading Aurora Photography Tour in Yellowknife again this March tonight. We had quite colourful Auroras all night, all of sudden at 02:13 local time, one shooting star started from Western sky and exploded towards North. It got so bright that I had to close my eyes like someone used electric flash in front of me. A few minutes later, we could hear the huge explosion from the direction of the fireball fell. What an exciting night!!!

Montreal - A fireball exploded and lit up the skies over Yellowknife early Thursday morning, but was not believed to have caused any damage.

One expert compared it to a similar incident that took place over Montreal last November. An image of the explosion was posted on the website of Spaceweather.com. It was captured by a photographer who was leading a tour of the Aurora Borealis.

The exploding meteor was described as being so bright that it turned the night sky blue. Peter Brown, a physics professor at Western University in London, Ont., viewed the photo of the bright fireball, which he calculated was less than one metre in size.

He told The Canadian Press the fact that there was an explosion meant the object had probably penetrated deep into the atmosphere.

But Brown said that he was almost certain the explosive force was too weak to cause any damage. He added that the view of an exploding fireball is something that people might only see once a year.

The Western University physics professor noted the meteor that exploded over the skies of Montreal in November 2013 created a thundering boom, but it also shook houses.

The two fireballs over Yellowknife and Montreal paled in comparison to what happened over Chelyabinsk, Russia just over a year ago. That's when a meteor estimated to be about 10 tons exploded over the Ural Mountains on Feb. 15, 2013 with the power of an atomic bomb. The sonic blasts from that fireball shattered windows and injured about 1,000 people.

Source: The Canadian Press

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Asteroid came close today and missed, but there's another tonight!

Asteroid 2014 EC
© Blastr.com
This afternoon asteroid 2014 DX110 zoomed by the Earth at a distance closer than the moon. NASA said:
As happens about 20 times a year with current detection capabilities, a known asteroid will safely pass Earth Wednesday closer than the distance from Earth to the moon.

This asteroid, 2014 DX110, is estimated to be about 100 feet (30 meters) across. Its closest approach to Earth will be at about 217,000 miles (about 350,000 kilometers) from Earth at about 1 p.m. PST (4 p.m. EST) on March 5. The average distance between Earth and its moon is about 239,000 miles (385,000 kilometers).
We're all more aware of these small yet dangerous asteroids that slide right by the Earth because, one, NASA and others are getting better at discovering them on approach; and, two, there was that surprise meteorite that blew up over Chelyabinsk last year (see gallery below), injuring hundreds and generally freaking people out.

Now, as Slate reports, a smaller one will pass even closer tonight ... and of particular note, it was spotted just yesterday:
An asteroid called 2014 EC that was discovered only last night will pass the Earth just after midnight UTC tonight, sliding past us at a distance of just 56,000 km (35,000 miles) above Earth's surface! This rock is roughly 10 meters across - half the diameter of the Chelyabinsk asteroid. A miss is as good as a mile, as they say, but it shows that there are lots of these things passing us all the time.
As the veil lifts and we humans get better at seeing just how much danger is circling our little blue life raft, scientists and enthusiasts are arguing that we need a plan. In response, the U.N. has established the International Asteroid Warning Network for that purpose.

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Asteroid expected to whizz between the Earth and the moon on March 5

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© AFP Photo/NASA/JPL CaltechThis NASA image shows an artist's animation that illustrates a massive asteroid belt.
An Apollo class asteroid is expected to whizz between the Earth and the moon on March 5. The 98-foot-wide space rock is expected to come within 218,000 miles of earth (0.9 lunar distances), creating quite the site for stargazers.

The asteroid, named 2014 DX110, is expected to make its closest approach at 21:07 GMT on Wednesday at a blistering speed of 14.85 km/s (32,076 mph). Although the space rock poses no threat to earth, it highlights the earth's susceptibility to near-Earth asteroids.

For amateur astronomers interested in watching the flyby as it happens, the virtual telescope project will offer live coverage via Slooh, which allows viewers to peer through a telescope via the web.

DX110 belongs to the Apollo class of asteroids, a group of Earth-crossing asteroids, which pose a potential threat to humankind. The February-15, 2013, 65-foot-wide meteor, which exploded over the town of Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals region of Russia, belonged to the Apollo class. The meteor explosion was 30 times stronger than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. As windowpanes shattered throughout the city, 1,500 people were injured, but luckily no one was killed.

Nearly one year after the Chelyabinsk atmospheric extravaganza, another massive asteroid sailed past the Earth. The space-rock known officially as 2000 EM26 had an estimated diameter of 885 feet, roughly the equivalent of 3 football fields. It however, only came within some 2,094,400 miles of Earth.

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Best of the Web: Signs of Change in February 2014

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Extreme flooding in Southwest England

Heavy snowfall in Europe causes misery - 6.0 earthquake in Greece, followed by a 6.1 a week later - More fireballs - Mt. Etna eruption - Deep freeze in America, heavy snowfall in south East, children stranded in schools - Bizarre tumbleweed invasion in Mexico - Massive floods in Italy, 2 meters of snow in the north - Indonesia volcano eruption kills 16 people - Heaviest snow in 50 years in Iran, 1.5 meters - 400 dead dolphins in Peru - Blizzards turn Slovenia to ice, and disrupt Serbia Croatia, Germany - 30 ft sinkhole in Buckinghamshire - Britain battered by a swath of storms, causing yet more extreme flooding, worst in 250 years - Blizzards blast north west US, while california suffers heavy flooding - Worst snowstorm in Japan in decades kills 13 people, heaviest in 78 years - Huge sinkhole swallows car museum - 130 year record broken for storms in Philadelphia - 49 out of 50 states covered in snow - Another eruption on Java island, Indonesia leaves 2 people dead - Carolina earthquakes - 103 earthquakes in Oklahoma. Mysterious boom in Philadelphia blows out windows - New jersey lake turns blood red - 22 Tornadoes strike states in Midwest...

Recent storms worldwide have been destroying records with an onslaught of precipitation leading to more 100 year events which devastated populated areas. This video includes rare, strange and extreme weather that had taken place over the last month or so and it's not getting any better since my last upload, it only worsen!


*This series does not mean the world is ending! These are documentaries of series of extreme weather events that are leading to bigger earth changes. If you are following the series, then you are seeing the signs.

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Spectacular meteor shone brightly over Kenya, then explodes; house burned

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© Mendosa.comThe Rift Valley in Kenya
While calm appears restored in most parts of the Rift Valley that were left shell-shocked on Thursday night following the explosion of an astronomical body, the identity of the phenomenon is still shrouded in mystery. The object shone bright in the dark sky before exploding.

People scampered for safety at the sight of the body and the subsequent explosion with reports of wailing and panic reported across the more than three counties where the astronomical body was seen. Facebook and other social network platforms were abuzz soon after the extraterrestrial incident.

The panic was felt from Kuresoi to Uasin Gishu and the areas in between while on the networks, people were making wild and educated guesses. Speculation was that the astronomical body was either a meteorite or a comet. "I saw it. It was big and spectacular," said Mike Kimani, a resident of Kericho. There were reports that the body left some destruction on its trail.

From LunarMeteoriteHunters website: Initial Meteor Sighting Report-
27FEB2014 Gerald Eldama Ravine, Kenya 20.10 pm Over 30 seconds not clear Loud explosions 10 times louder than thunder Super bright not clear Multiple witness reports. A super bright light that lasted for a span of 30 seconds was spotted in the sky at about 8:10pm today. It was later followed by a deafening bang around Torongo and Poror areas of Eldama Ravine. Many who did not manage to see the bright light though heard the sound believed it was an explosion. The light was seen by many as far as Marigat and Eldoret.

Comment: The last event mentioned happened in July, where two meteors hit and made impact with the ground in Kenya, two weeks apart. Heavenly Signs: Chronicle of a Busy Month (July 2011)


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Massive meteor fireball reported over U.S. Northeast, 24 February 2014

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© amsmeteors.orgAMS received 160 reports about this fireball seen over Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania and Virginia on February 25th 2014 around 02:12 (UTC).

A large and bright fireball was seen and reported by approx. 100 witnesses across Northern US East Coast (February 24th 2014, 9:11pm EST - February 25th 2014, 2:11pm UT).

The fireball was seen from primarily New Jersey but witnesses from Connecticut, Maryland, New Hampshire, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virgina also reported seeing the fireball.

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Loud booms heard by residents in St. Louis, Missouri

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© Dschwen
Loud booms around the St. Louis area have residents worried there's been an outbreak of earthquakes, but News 4's Russell Kinsaul talked to experts and found out the "booms" are called "Frost quakes."

Frost quakes occur when water soaks into the ground, freezes, and quickly expands. The quick expansion can suddenly move large amounts of soil and cause small earthquakes.

"I was sitting right here in this room and I heard and really loud boom," Fairview Heights resident Susan O'Mara said.

O'Mara said she heard the sound on Monday at her home. The noise was so loud, she said she looked out side because she thought a car ran into a neighbor's house but didn't see anything.

"I didn't know what it was. A little shake to the house. I thought it was an earthquake."

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Massive meteor fireball caught on police dashcam, seen from all nearly entire Eastern half of U.S., 27 February 2014

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© ethanrogati.comPhoto of the fireball over America, Thursday night, 27 February 2014
Look, up in the sky! A bird? A plane? Superman? No, just a bright white fireball captured on video in a Madison police officer's squad car.


Comment: "Just" a bright white fireball?! Wow, talk about normalizing something that until last year was being described as "so rare it almost never happens"!


On a cold Wednesday night on the city's West Side, a veteran police officer saw something not normally seen when on patrol, Madison police said in a news release.

"The officer was parked near the Hy-Vee store at Westgate Mall when just before midnight, a large, bright white fireball pierced the cold night sky," said police spokesman Joel DeSpain.

"The object was moving extremely fast and would have without question struck the ground," the officer said in his report.


Comment: This gives you an idea how unusual this phenomenon is: it's not generally known that most fireballs do not in fact impact the ground.


A fellow officer driving on Old Sauk Road also saw the same "long fire trail," the release said.

Comment: It appears that the police officer witnessed the same massive fireball seen over the entire Eastern half of the U.S. on Thursday night. Although it can seem like these things impact nearby, they're actually burning up and breaking apart so high up in the atmosphere (most of the time!) that it's very difficult to tell what state you'll find meteorites in, let alone the next town over.


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Fireball in the sky Sunday night in Central New York

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© Ethan RogatiEthan Rogati captured this stunning view of the meteor from Milton, V.T.. It was reportedly seen as far south as Albany, and as far north as Montreal.
Syracuse -- It wasn't a bird or a plane and it certainly wasn't Superman. If you found yourself gazing at a colorful, firework-like flash of light in the sky, it was probably a meteoroid.

Dozens of people across New York State, as well as several in Central New York, reported seeing a meteoroid in the sky at about 8:45 p.m. Sunday, according to the American Meteor Society.

The scientific organization devoted to the study, investigation and tracking of meteors allows the public and trained spotters to report sightings of fireballs -- meteors brighter than the planet Venus -- online. Sunday's suspected meteoroid probably ended up somewhere in the Adirondacks, according to submitted reports.

People across Central New York described the sight in reports to the American Meteor Society.

"I was driving south when something as bright as the moon caught my eye to my left," said Drew Montreuil, a meteorologist in Groton. "I looked and saw a green fireball that appeared in my quick glance to be sparking red. It disappeared shortly thereafter."